The other day I reviewed Brick Brewing's Authentic Amber Ale. It was only a matter of time until I would review its sister beer, the Waterloo Original Dark Ale Lager. I'm a fan of dark ales, just as much as a good stout or porter. It has its place but seeing it's much lighter on the stomach than a porter or stout, I can drink them easier in summer than the others.

Appearance: The Waterloo Original Dark poursnice thick & dark brown, alike to most dark ales on the market today, yet lighter than the average porter by far. Quite carbonated, the slightly caramelly head diminishes near immediately with some fizz.

Aroma: The aroma may be the most intriguing part of the review. What I expected out of this dark ale was a roasty malt, slightly coffee aroma.. but it was actually a sweeter, more of a Belgian ale sweetness. It has a slight tinny aroma from the can, but that's usually expected from canned beer, slightly malty and the roasty aroma DOES appear, but only gradually.

Taste: For a dark lager, quite drinkable. It has a bit of a tinny and meh maltiness to it, but it's easy to drink, slightly roasty malt, nice amount of sweet and bitterness and basically your standard dark beer. Not much going for it, but that's not always a bad thing.

Overall Thoughts: Has an ABV of 5%, much less than the Amber's ABV of nearly 7%, so it's your standard dark lager or dark ale. Somewhat malty, a bit tinny, but a nice amount of roastiness in the beer. Very comparable in taste to Fort Garry Dark Ale. This is certainly a beer I will get again, but it costs $2.99 for a 473mL can, if I had to choose between this and the Amber Ale, I'd likely go for the Amber for something slightly different.

Cody Lobreau

Welcome to BeerCrank.ca! I'm a bit obsessed about craft beer, especially Canadian craft beer so I mainly review Canadian beer but I love to try beer from all over the world as well. My goal is to help influence the casual beer drinker to go out and expand their beer palate one way or another. Feel free to send some feedback!
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